Picabo Street Ready to Compete Again

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, January 7, 2002

Olympic gold medalist Picabo Street's left leg was broken and the ligaments in her right knee were mangled in a 1998 ski accident.

Now the 30-year-old Street is back with a competitive spirit and mended legs that she hopes will lead to one final hurrah _ a gold medal in Salt Lake City at the 2002 Winter Games.

"The chance to race in my home country and in Utah, my own back yard, is too yummy of a carrot," Street told Ladies' Home Journal in its February issue. (Street moved from Portland, Ore., to Park City, Utah, in 1999.)

Does she have a game plan for retirement?

"Time with my family is my first priority," says Street, who's engaged to John Mulligan, a ski technician. "But acting is intriguing. I've done commercials, and people in the entertainment industry say I'm `cute.'

"But the thing I really want to do is build a net between the current ski team and the team-to-be, to catch all the fall-throughs who go to college or quit the sport because they don't have enough money."